EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Legislation, Real Estate, Society

Previously International Design for All Foundation with central office in Barcelona has placed the Concept of barrier-free environment in the historic center of Kuldiga in the list of Best Practices 2015, which automatically leads to status of candidate for the International Design for All Foundation 2016 Awards. The goal of the concept is to promote universal design principles in historical city center in order to make it accessible for people with disabilities of sight, hearing, mobility as well as mental disorders. According to website of the Design for All Foundation, thanks to the improvement of environmental quality, Kuldiga with its historic center will become one of the friendliest historic European cities for people with disabilities.

The concept is based on the materials of the international conference «Accessible public space in historic city centers: challenges and solutions", which took place in Kuldiga on September, 11, 2015. It was organized by the Baltic Architecture Centre and the society for integration of persons with sight disabilities "I See" (Latvia) with support of Kuldiga District Council. The conference was held in the framework of the project "Heritage and environmental accessibility promoting democracy and civil society", that received the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

In the work of the conference such internationally renowned experts took part as members of working group Barrier-free city for all of the International Eurocities Network Head of the Environment Coordination Center "Barrier-free building" of the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment Ingeborg Stude and Vice-director of the Foundation „Barrier-free City"  Sergey Chisty (Moscow), leader of working group of Landscape Architects (IFLA) IFLA/UIA Helena Gutmane (Riga), Head of The Building Department of Kuldiga municipality, Chair of Latvia National Department of  ICOMOS Yana Yakobsone, as well as Director General of  company Observer, wheelchair user Roman Aranin (Kaliningrad), Head of the Liepaja Society of Persons without Sight Maris Ceirulis and Head of the Baltic Architecture Center Aivija Barda. Co-Director of Architecture for All  Programme Region l at UIA (International Union of Architects), professor of Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland Fionnuala Rogerson (Dublin) and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Building Oleg Fyodorov made presentations and took part in discussion using Skype.

The conference was attended by experts of building and social departments of the Latvian municipalities, people with disabilities NGO activists and residents of Kuldiga. The special atmosphere was created by presence of Chairman of the Kuldiga District Council Inga Berziņa.

"We really do care about persons with disabilities in Kuldiga city and rural district, -- Inga Berziņa  commented on the news of international recognition of the concept. -- In order to coordinate our activities with what is going on in wider context, we organize international conferences, invite to Kuldiga world-class experts. We are listening to their opinions and advices, but also do organize discussions with participation of local experts and activists and  after assessing the local government opportunities we address environmental accessibility issues. For example, we are building a swimming pool in Kuldiga right now, which will be equipped according the needs of persons with reduced mobility. We are also working on the issue of accessibility of swimming place at the river of Venta, which is proud of its blue flag, for the people using wheelchairs. Of course accessibility of historical center of Kuldiga remains in our priority list. We regard high evaluation of Design for All Foundation as appreciation of performance by our professionals, that motivates the work ahead."

While the Latvia Ministry of Welfare in its press release welcomed the NGO contribution to making an accessible environment, providing significant improvements to the accessibility of physical environment, transport, information, communications and other services. "The accessibility concept, which was worked out by NGO Baltic architectural center in collaboration with local municipality, is an important step for making barrier-free environment in Kuldiga. Only in consultation with organizations representing persons with disabilities, it is possible to achieve significant improvements in the field of environmental accessibility. In order to ensure non-discrimination and the environment and information accesssibility for persons with disabilities, the Ministry of Welfare and  EU Cohesion Fund plan to develop environmental strategies and availability of environmental standards on accessibility to public buildings and outdoor spaces  in the whole Latvia. Those will provide accessibility of physical environment, transportation, information and communication technologies and other services for the persons with disabilities and people with different abilities, all those who for various reasons have limited ability to move, see, hear, understand, enter the institutions and receive services."

Internationally renowned architectural and urban theoritician Alexander Rappaport believes that in many ways Kuldiga looks in context of EU as good example human urban practice. "The city is quite small, so if there is strong will of local management and financing options, then interesting solutions are quite possible. Kuldiga is interesting both for its geographical position and historical destiny. Looking at tragic XX century event of the Holocaust, which had completely destroyed Kuldiga Jewish community, local urban humanization initiatives become important not only for such people with special needs as elderly, disabled and mothers with prams, but also all locals, and as example of good practice, for the whole of Europe. It is possible that in the near future in Kuldiga, as in other European cities, newcomers who are seeking refuge from the atrocities of war will appear. People with unusual color of skin, of culture unusual for Latvia and unconventional belief will join the community of Kuldiga. I am sure that the city experience of adaptation of urban space to needs of today's population will help Kuldiga to cope with this challenge as well."

Chairperson of the  Baltic Architecture Centre Aivija Barda, who initiated the project of barrier-free historical centre of Kuldiga, is confident that environmental accessibility and universal design have reached the everyday activities of designers and architects as acute necessity when implementing the projects. "We are talking much on universal design, grow angry, sometimes have a weakness of populism, but most often simply don't know the rules of the game. Kuldiga environmental accessibility concept was created in collaboration with leading experts of universal design in Europe from the Eorocities international network. They had researched examples of good practice in EU, and with the prism of this experience were analyzing how to make the old city of Kuldiga  accessible to all. The next step of working out unique, creative solutions for certain spots in the historic landscape is expected from our architects and designers. Our priority  is the recognition of needs of people with disabilities and respect towards our historical heritage. I am confident that our talented professionals are able to respond to the challenges of the XXI century, namely to use modern technologies and materials in order to incorporate the elements of accessibility in the historic environment."